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A Treatment for Stroke Is Safe, Study Finds

Cells taken from a deadly tumor and retrained to become brain cells have been transplanted safely in stroke patients, doctors said today.

The study's initial aim was to test whether the technique was safe, and the results strengthen the idea that brain cell transplants can be used to help stroke patients recover, the researchers, at the University of Pittsburgh, said.

''We did not try to hit a home run the first time at bat,'' said Dr. Douglas Kondziolka, a professor of neurological surgery who helped lead the study. ''This is a very brand new area of neuroscience,'' Dr. Kondziolka said. ''In a first study we are trying to get to first base. That means safety.''

The researchers said about half the patients improved, but their study did not have a comparison group of patients who did not get the treatment, so it was not clear whether the improvement resulted from the treatment.

Dr. Kondziolka's team experimented on 12 stroke patients, all of whom had fairly serious brain damage. Strokes can cause problems with speech, hearing, movement and learning.

All patients received injections of the cells, which started out as cancer cells but were transformed into nerve cells using technology patented by researchers who formed a private company called Layton BioScience in Atherton, Calif.

Less than six months later, 6 of the 12 patients had improved scores on standard measures of stroke effects, Dr. Kondziolka's team reported in the journal Neurology.

''They are things like a better ability to use the arm and leg, walking without a brace, strength in terms of being able to hold something better,'' Dr. Kondziolka said.

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PET scans showed that the cells seemed to be functioning in about half the patients.

All of the nine men and three women, ages 44 to 74, had an unusual type of stroke called a basal ganglia stroke. Dr. Kondziolka said these patients were chosen because such a stroke usually damages a small, contained area of cells.

''We don't have enough brain cells to put all over the brain,'' he said.

None of the patients developed cancer.

The cells all came from a 22-year-old cancer patient who died years ago from a tumor known as a teratocarcinoma.

The cells have properties similar to stem cells, which are a kind of master cell in the body from which all other cells are produced. Scientists are studying the use of stem cells to also treat brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Dr. Justin Zivin, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, issued strong warnings about the study.

Patients will have to be watched for years to make sure the cells used do not revert to their malignant form and cause cancer, Dr. Zivin said.

''It is too soon to know whether it promises hope for disabled patients with stroke,'' he wrote in an editorial.

''Adverse effects may not have been seen because the injected quantities were too small to be effective and the larger cell numbers, sufficient to produce a major benefit, may have greater concomitant hazards,'' he added.